The harbinger of a warm wind swept across rugged highland forests, tussling the grass and catching the pine boughs in its gentle embrace, swirling, ever moving- the soft sigh of a lonely world. Cold sunlight gleamed off a million icicles and the endless winding of frozen streams, crisp morning air saturated with the scent of loamy earth and acrid pine.

Empty. Only that could describe these lonely sentinel mounts, so far away from anything and everything, bound by icy seas and the inhospitable reaches of the far north. Even only a few animals scuffed around the dense underbrush, carefully stocking up on the last remnants of edible food before the long winter nights.

A small herd of deer huddled closely together, warily twitching away from a wolf's call, squirrels huddled into their dens, a lone bear lumbered away into a small depression hidden between a broken hill and sundered rock, birds plucked the last berries- and, with a flash of fire and a some unfavorable epithets, a fox fell out of nowhere into a frigid stream.

Clawing her way out of the absolutely freezing water, Kitsune violently shook herself before padding over to lay beneath weeping branches of some ancient willow. "ISON, where the hell did he throw me?"

[ISON report: location - Tau-33720: northern boreal forest frontier region, forty years prior to designate: "eternal Emperor's" ascension.]

Sighing, a flick of her tail heated the ground beneath her to hazily glowing molten lava. "Great. No courtesy at all, those layabouts. Could have at least sent me to the action."

[Prerecorded message from Seraph: Tabby - "You've been going to the exact same time for the last several hundred tries."]

"Damn it! Logic!" Huffing, Kitsune tried her very best to ignore the world around her as she adjusted to the vastly reduced power of her manifestation. "Tabs didn't program in sarcastic messages for the entire two thousand years… right?"

[Prerecorded message from Seraph: Tabby - "No, of course not."]

Sighing in relief, Kitsune dropped her head onto her paws and closed her eyes. "That's… good news-"

[Prerecorded message from Seraph: Tabby - "Kidding, of course I did."]

Kitsune just lit the willow on fire in wordless rage.

………

It took twenty years and getting thoroughly sick of Tabs' wry comments for Kitsune to transform the small clearing into a comfortable homestead nestled in the crook of the stream. It was beautiful, in a quaint way, and for all its simplicity it was- for a time- home.

The fact it was placed neatly in the way of the first and most important event in history made for a good side effect too. Over the past few years, when the snow grew too deep or the sky wept in tumultuous thunderstorms she'd spent time reviewing Tabs' plan for the iteration, and- as always- it was inspired.

[Prerecorded-]

Kitsune groaned, flowing smoothly into the body of a fox before rolling off the chair and onto the floor. One day… one day she'd leave Tabs in her infinite annihilation, and she'd be the one laughing-

She felt a presence on the far end of her sensory range, and quickly slipped back into a far more human form, manifesting some period-appropriate garb around herself. How she wished for some more comfortable clothing… a shame this universe seemed diametrically opposed to ever developing the appropriate technologies…

The presence resolved into two, then many- twin groups, one descending onto the other, scattering, brushing them aside- so many grains of sand, seeds on wind, nurtured under the blood of history. As many times as it had happened before, and would again- the first of the presences slowly dwindled, leaving only a scattered feeling of agony and a single lone glimmer dragging its way through the undergrowth.

[ISON note - designate: "eternal Emperor" approaching position. Displaying iteration plan.] A branching diagram flickered through her brain, a last reminder echoing its infinite refrains of the endless war, simple in its excellence.

A breath- a second, feeling the fires of her existence and settling into the person who was Tsune, a woman living alone on an old family farmstead, last of her line instead of Kitsune, interdimensional warrior deity, Seraph and guardian eternal. It showed in her posture, the slightest slouch, a weary tint to her eyes not quite entirely faked no matter how much she wished it so- callused hands, imperfect, gently grasped around a long wooden staff as she pushed open the door and stepped into morning sunlight and the faintest sounds of heavy breath.

The bushes to the side of the stream were swept apart beneath a flash of shining bronze, a shout, and a young man tumbling over the side of a small cliff before he splashed into the frigid stream. It would have been entirely comical, were it not for his look of horror and the dark swirl of crimson red that stained the crystal water. Pale fingers struggled to clutch onto the bank before slipping-

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

Unconscious, the body of a deity not yet realized fell quietly into the stream, and history diverged from possibility.

………

Tsune watched carefully as Taza Anacha'o, only a young man for all the crimes he'd never committed, shivered beneath the bedsheets she'd heaped atop him. Pale candlelight cast his form in harsh relief, pooling darkness beneath his eyes rippling as he twitched, caught in the throws of a nightmare.

Gently, her palm pressed itself into her forehead with a swirl of silver fire that danced on the edge of oily iridescence, an ethereal conflagration that caught the edge of dreams and burnt the whole thing to pleasant nothing and eternal combustion.

Blood- a hint of dark forests, the acrid smell of smoke and cold water- eyes, cold, alone- thatch roofs burning, eyes burning, burning- and the rest of her flame swept it away in a wash of light. Another spark of light danced at the edge of her finger before sinking into the dream, a mote of her essence, diluted until it was the barest hint of friendly laughter and pale warmth. Friend- it whispered to him eternally. This is friend. She wasn't the best at this kind of manipulation- but one tended to pick things up over the millenia. All she had to do was make sure he remembered her.

A few days passed as she watched over the vulnerable emperor-to-be before he finally stirred, empty eyes staring sightlessly toward some point infinitely above him. "...why did you leave me alive? Infinite curses… Asaza, you took your revenge years past… why torment me so?"

"Tsune, actually. You stumbled out of nowhere onto my farm. It's been… years since I've seen anyone up here." She leaned back on a chair, carefully watching Taza fail miserably to push off his covers. "Here, some tea to help you recover."

Taza eyed the steaming cup warily. "It doesn't smell right. Too much golden holly, I think, undermines the effect-"

"This was my mother's recipe!" Tsune huffed in mock indignation- it was true, though, as much as the fact that everything in existence had originally been her mother. "It genuinely helps, so either suck it up and drink it down, or make your own."

Taza hissed in displeasure, struggling faintly beneath the heavy pelts. "I'm a little indisposed here. What else could you have piled on top of me? Iron bars? The moon?" Tsune snorted softly, but pushed the cup closer anyways, and after a few minutes of silence Taza drank it down. "...thanks. Seriously, though- there was too much golden holly and… try using waterweed from upstream instead of downstream." Tsune smiled acridly and Taza scowled back, but it was probably good advice. He was a prodigious alchemist, even in his youth.

"You've been asleep for a few days. Any reason in particular you decided to bleed out into my stream?"

Taza turned away, closing his eyes against that burning gaze. "...I suppose you wouldn't accept that I wanted to give you a good headstart on a bloodgrass patch?"

"Thanks, then." Tsune flashed a wry smile. "And thanks for the pretty centerpiece-" his sword flashed in the dim light as she held it up, watching his eyes widen at the eddies of light on its dented edge. "It'll look great out there, until it rusts to pieces."

"Damn. You couldn't be any more cruel, could you? If you really want to know, I was attacked by bandits."

"Bandits." Tsune leveled a blank stare at him. "Here, forever and a mile away from human civilization, you were attacked by bandits. I haven't seen people up here for the past twenty years, much less bandits."

"You're insufferable. They were bandits-" he scowled back, but a barely twenty year old human had nothing on her- "...just, perhaps the mercenary kind. I'm searching for… something… in these mountains, and if they find it first I'll never complete my eternal legacy." A dreamy look stole across his face. "An alchemical masterpiece, to attune myself to the very fundamentals of reality."

"Well… make sure to show me when you manage it. You can stay here for as long as you want." She paused, debating whether or not to make sure…A mental command hailed that endless tangle of pathways, many rendered dead and endless more illuminated in the light of possibility. [ISON note - designate: "eternal Emperor" traveled upstream due his missing sword in original continuity. Additional motivation significantly increases plan viability.] "There's an old legend, that my mother used to tell me…" her lips quirked into a smile as she saw Taza's attention settle fully onto her with a burning passion- "about how all the water in the world flows from a spring at the top of the mountains, slowly trickling down to the plains and oceans and all those faraway lands. Always thought it was a story but… who am I to doubt the master alchemist?" Seraph, of course, but she didn't need to doubt him.

“I’d… I’d like that.” And he smiled, and she grinned back- him in the quiet relief of safety at last, and her in the vindication of a plan well done, a first move well played.

Things were falling into place.

………

Four weeks, he stayed in her cottage recuperating from his injuries, resting half the day and teaching her tidbits of the ancient art of alchemy, barely more than a review of the most basic topics. Tsune lived for those four weeks.

Then- Taza took his sword with him and set out upstream, a fool’s pursuit of a child’s story. Tsune died again, and Kitsune stepped back into place, weary… for all this was the eternal Emperor’s first adventure, a tale for two thousand years, Kitsune had seen it before.

The emperor sought immortality at the top of the world, all while a historical footnote troubleshot the universe.

…......

Independent Surveillance Operational Network

Report generated upon request of Seraph: Kitsune, on the current spatio-temporal position of designate: “eternal Emperor.”

Universe: Tau-33720

Designate: “eternal Emperor” followed a tertiary predicted path-set, climbing to the Font of Life and communing with the elements, before defeating 23 hired mercenaries with newfound magical prowess. Designate: “eternal Emperor” returned to lowland kingdoms to complete his mother’s experiments in immortality.

Report complete.